Can I use blender with Azure Nvidia K80 to render using GPU
The problem I was facing was caused by the fact that I hadn't followed the correct setup steps:

1) Use the latest LTS Ubuntu image (16.04) - I was using 14.04

2) Install the correct drivers

Details for using GPU on Azure can be found at:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/virtual-machines/linux/n-series-driver-setup